Johan Anthoniszoon "Jan" van Riebeeck was a Dutch navigator and colonial administrator who arrived in Cape Town in what became the Dutch Cape Colony of the Dutch East India Company. Van Riebeeck was born as the son of a surgeon, he grew up in Schiedam, where he married 19-year-old Maria de la Queillerie on 28 March 1649. She died in Malacca, now part of Malaysia, on 2 November 1664, at the age of 35; the couple had nine children, most of whom did not survive infancy. Their son Abraham van Riebeeck, born at the Cape became Governor-General of the Dutch East Indies. Joining the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie in 1639, he served in a number of posts, including that of an assistant surgeon in the Batavia in the East Indies, he was head of the VOC trading post in Indochina. After being dismissed from that position in 1645, he began to advocate a refreshment station in the Cape of Good Hope after staying 18 days there during his return voyage. Two years support increased after a marooned VOC ship was able to survive in a temporary fortress.

The Heeren XVII requested a report from Leendert Jansz and Mathys Proot, which recommended a Dutch presence. In 1643, Riebeeck travelled with Jan van Elseracq to the VOC outpost at Dejima in Japan. Seven years in 1650, he proposed selling hides of South African wild animals to Japan, he volunteered to undertake the command of the initial Dutch settlement in the future South Africa and departed from Texel on 24 December 1651. He landed two ships at the future Cape Town site on 6 April 1652 and the Reijger on 7 April 1652 and commenced to fortify it as a way station for the VOC trade route between the Netherlands and the East Indies; the primary purpose of this way station was to provide fresh provisions for the VOC fleets sailing between the Dutch Republic and Batavia, as deaths en route were high. The Walvisch and the Oliphant arrived on 7 May 1652. Van Riebeeck was Commander of the Cape from 1652 to 1662. In the Kirstenbosch National Botanical Garden in Cape Town, a few wild almond trees still survive.

The initial fort, named Fort de Goede Hoop was made of mud and timber, had four corners or bastions. This fort was replaced by the Castle of Good Hope, built between 1666 and 1679 after van Riebeeck had left the Cape. Van Riebeeck was joined at the Cape by a fellow Culemborger Roelof de Man, who arrived in January 1654 on board the ship Naerden. Roelof came as the colony bookkeeper and was promoted to second-in-charge. Van Riebeeck established a vineyard in the Colony to produce red wine. Van Riebeeck reported the first comet discovered from South Africa, C/1652 Y1, spotted on 17 December 1652. In his time at the Cape, Van Riebeeck oversaw a sustained, systematic effort to establish an impressive range of useful plants in the novel conditions on the Cape Peninsula – in the process changing the natural environment forever; some of these, including grapes, ground nuts, potatoes and citrus, had an important and lasting influence on the societies and economies of the region. The daily diary entries kept throughout his time at the Cape provided the basis for future exploration of the natural environment and its natural resources.

Careful reading of his diaries indicate that some of his knowledge was learned from the indigenous peoples inhabiting the region. He died in Batavia on Java in 1677. Jan van Riebeeck is of historical significance to South Africa. Many of the Afrikaner population view him as the founding father of their nation; this regard was prevalent in that his image appeared ubiquitously on stamps and the South African currency from the 1940s up until 1993 when the South African Reserve Bank changed the currency to an apolitical design of the fauna and flora of the region. The image used on the currency notes was not that of Van Riebeeck, but of Bartholomeus Vermuyden.6 April used to be known as Van Riebeeck's Day, as Founders' Day, but the holiday was abolished by the African National Congress government after the elections of 1994. His image no longer features on any official currency or stamps, but statues of him and his wife remain in Adderley Street, Cape Town; the coat of arms of the city of Cape Town is based on the Van Riebeeck family coat of arms.

Ginger Fitzgerald is a fictional character in the Ginger Snaps trilogy. She serves as the antihero of the films. In Ginger Snaps and Brigitte Fitzgerald are teenage sisters who are both fascinated with death and, as children, formed a pact to die together. One night, while preparing to steal the dog of Trina Sinclair, Ginger starts her first period, which causes the girls to be attacked by a werewolf. Ginger is rescued by Brigitte; the creature is run over by a van belonging to Sam, a local drug dealer. Ginger decides not to go the hospital, she begins to change causing Brigitte to become worried and desperate to find a cure. After several failed attempts to cure Ginger, Brigitte discovers that a dose of monkshood helps control the infection. Before Brigitte can inject Ginger with the plant, she transforms, forcing Brigitte to kill her. In Ginger Snaps 2: Unleashed, while only appearing as a minor character, Ginger is seen in several of Brigitte's hallucinations telling her to give in to the transformation.

In Ginger Snaps Back: The Beginning, Ginger returns as a lead character. In the 1800s, Ginger and Brigitte are lost with their horse in the Canadian wilderness when they discover an "abandoned camp". An Indian woman gives them each a pendant. Brigitte's foot is caught in a trap. Ginger seeks help, they are led to Fort Bailey. A group of werewolves attack Ginger is bitten on the shoulder. After being held prisoner and fighting back, Ginger lets the werewolves enter. Ginger and Brigitte are the only ones left alive; when Brigitte states that she is cold, Ginger quotes "I'm not". Brigitte cuts her hand and presses it against a cut on Ginger's hand, mixing their blood and infecting herself with the curse as well. Casting took place in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto and Vancouver. Isabelle auditioned on the same day as Perkins at their agency in Vancouver, reading to one another off-camera. ScreenwriterKaren Walton said they were as she had pictured the characters when their taped auditions had arrived.

What Culture said: "Obsessed with death and morbidity, afraid of adulthood, Ginger Fitzgerald, portrayed by Katharine Isabelle of American Mary fame, only gets worse when she's bitten by a lycanthrope and the transformation into a wolf begins. She becomes aggressive and over-sexualised, loses her relationship with her sister, grows pointy teeth and sprouts hair in weird places, she grows a tail which she attempts to cut off. It takes a big set of cojones to try to cut off any body part. Though, the film is interesting because it examines the dichotomy between Ginger's humanity and her animalistic side."Jessica Roakes of The Toast mentions the metaphorical nature of the character saying "Ginger's body has betrayed her by menstruating. This is a key tenant of the body-horror genre — the monstrous comes not just from the outside, but from within the human body, from infection or perversion or unwanted biological functions. In Ginger's case, it is her metamorphosis from girl to woman that renders her monstrous."